Analytics market report

19th December 2018

Internet of Things (IoT) market vendors have no choice but to enhance their cyber-security with more sophisticated tools which allow a deeper understanding of their users, devices, and systems This will drive the security analytics market toward a revenue of US$12 Billion by 2024, according to ABI Research, a market advisory firm.

Advanced-level data analytics, bolstered by advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, permeate every major market and digital security is no exception. Dimitrios Pavlakis, Industry Analyst for ABI said: “The increased frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks are causing the security ecosystem to flourish and push the industry into the hunt for more reliable, in-depth, and high-quality security analytics intelligence.”

There are, however, pervasive challenges for security analytics both in what they encompass and what they can and should offer, as well as how the technology should evolve. Pavlakis said: “Most organisations understand security analytics as an elusive cluster of different technologies encompassing ‘a little bit of everything’. While on a top level they are somewhat correct on that respect, they, unfortunately, opt to pick whatever makes sense budget-wise. The issue is not only that they choose a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over security, but also have unrealistic expectations about the intelligence-gathering and the level of cybersecurity readiness of their chosen solution.”

However, the research firm adds, it is rather insufficient to pick just one intelligence-gathering aspect of certain vital security tools, and many organisations are still unclear about what are the prerequisites for reliable sources of security intelligence. ABI Research’s market report on these issues argues that the security analytics ecosystem must evolve towards providing truly interoperable solutions powered by advanced security analytics. This includes, among others, an amalgamation of intelligence gathered from Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), Unified Threat Management (UTM), next-generation firewalls, a steady stream of API data from cloud vendors, tied up behind new technologies such as cognitive computing and Natural Language Processing (NPL) classifiers. Market players, each with a different specialisation in security analytics, includes IBM, Cisco, and LogRhythm, and vendors like Crowdstrike, McAfee, Dartrace, and empow.